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Message: [QUOTE="Travelman6, post: 2768035, member: 7597"] I know someone mentioned it a few pages back but FIFA is about to really screw up (the world cup) if they go to 48 teams and do it the way they are currently proposing. [URL='https://sports.yahoo.com/2018-world-cup-group-stage-magical-pretty-soon-fifa-going-ruin-042949220.html?bcmt=1']The 2018 World Cup group stage was magical. Pretty soon, FIFA is going to ruin it[/URL] While there are some legit GOOD teams out of this years world cup (Netherlands, Italy, Chile, Ghana....you can even say USA (despite all its recent issues), Honduras, Paraguay, Greece, Cameroon and Ivory Coast) getting to even 40 is a stretch. Once you get into the mid 40s it is quite bad, UAE, New Zealand, Congo, Albania territory.... But worse than a watered down product is what they want to do to the groups. 16 groups of 3 makes [B]zero[/B] sense. If you think some of these games added little to no drama, games like England/Belgium, France/Denmark, Tunisia/Panama, Saudi Arabia/Egypt, IMHO this format will multiply that issue ten fold. It will kill the drama while allowing teams that messed up badly in the first game tons of room for error. No more Germany missing the knockout stages (or Spain missing, I think last world cup, would not occur, etc.) If FIFA REALLY feels compelled to go to 48 teams than have 12 four team groups. The top two in each still get in, plus the best eight third place teams. That gives you an extra round and 32 for the knockout stage. Group play format remains mostly unchanged except maybe it adds even more drama between some of those 3rd and 4th place matchups, like the Saudi/Egypt or Panama/Tunisia, etc. matches. Senegal would be rewarded for its great play, same with Iran, etc. Or, again, have the 12 groups of 4. Top 24 advance. But the bottom 16 play a first round where the 8 winners advance to face the 8 best teams for your round of 16 (second round)..Plus teams that naturally would have secured advancing before the third game under the current format might still have something to play for (a bye) in the third game under my proposed fix. It actually adds another dimension to group leaders (after 2 games) playing their 3rd game as they need to maintain their position in the group for the bye so England/Belgium would have been a fight (for the bye), not a game that, for the most part was pretty bad. Expansion or not, this is easy to NOT screw up, well, except with the proposed format that is, ew. [/QUOTE]

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